TOP: The $65,000 all copper tub that's now a favorite buy of the top 0.1%. Below: their favorite dessert - a $25,000 (apiece) Frrrozen Haute Chocolate. How can they eat this thing every week without choking?
Here's the skinny: The rest of us will be asked to bear ignominous cuts like the Chained CPI - so the richest can continue to lavish themselves with these luxuries with nary a backward step. Odious? You better believe it! But this is what happens when the Neoliberal Imperative believes its speculator dollars are worth more than ours, received for merely breathing!
In the previous blog I noted the question asked by Political Liars' blog, i.e. of Alice Rivlin - sometime advisor for the Simpson-Bowles Deficit Commisison and now a Neoliberal PR specialist:
"Why is cutting benefits to seniors the 'right thing' to do, Alice? Why do we have to pay for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and not the rich? And why do we have to pay for the financial economic collapse and not the rich, Alice? "
The answer, of course, is so the richest can preserve their ultimate luxuries, such as those shown, without missing a beat. Wouldn't want to deprive them of their special tubs, or $25,000 apiece delicacies now, would we? Oh wait, I mustn't do that! No! That's waging "class warfare" on the little turds! Tough shit!
First, what is the one percent income threshold? The lowest threshold level is generally agreed to be $387,000/yr which means the fiscal cliff deal let them keep all their Bush Tax cuts (equal to about one Bentley a year.) The median income is $1.1 million, from the Economic Policy Inst. last posting. Of that, barely one tenth actually goes to taxes, since they can employ special Trusts, write-offs and charity donatioins at will.
Obviously they don't spend solely on Bentleys but their equivalent cash benefit provides them with many options and a multitude of luxuries, including:
- At least one new yacht,
- 10-15 kt diamond jewellry (often necklaces) from Tiffany's - which outfit has recently said they're essentially no longer even token catering to the lesser income types
- Going on luxury golf trips, each month, say to St. Kitts or Aruba.
- Going on special luxury spa and foodie sojourns, say to St. Maarten.
For the latter, the one percent females can enjoy "chocolate sugar scrubs" and "rose wine wraps" while they wait in comfort for their bottles of bubbly.,....or partake in "other amenities", including: herbal steam room, guided beach walks, poolside yoga or pilates. They also have their choice of one of 33 treatment rooms.
After their ministrations, the one percent wife and hubby can enjoy their special candle-light dining in a special luxury Villla. There, they can feast on endless foie Gras, fresh salmon, lobster thermidor, and as many Magnums of the best champagne as they desire.
Why should they have to worry about disgruntled and curmudgeonly seniors bitching about possible Social Security cuts when they have likely derived the optimum benefits from Wall Street via flash or high speed computer trading, whereby special algorithms are used to buy and sell millions of shares before an ordinary 401k small fry can get to his phone to call in a redemption?
After the 1 percenters' enjoy their $$75k spa holiday, they can take their yachts anywhere they want, maybe hobnob with friends off Bimini or go to Anguilla for scuba diving among the corals. The wretched seniors soon to be on cat food diets are far, far away. They also may hobnob with fellow wine and brie "liberals" who also favor the chained CPI and believe it to be the solution for the "serious people" - after all, they incessantly quote Bob Woodward's last book: ‘The Price of Politics’ - especially the quote:
"Unsustainable entitlement spending on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security as highlighted by Republican House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and familiar to all informed politicians and economists....has been left largely unaddressed."
So, I mean, they all breathe with a sigh of relief that Obama's finally finally addressing it! Now they can sleep easier in their temperature -controlled luxury King beds with the built in massagers, built in dildos, and special adjustable "libido" blankets! They are in Neoliberal Heaven!
On finally getting home, they can check their portfolios again, and ensure their hedge funds and ETFs are still making money while all the little guys are losing with their pathetic and pedestrian mutual funds. Or...better yet....blindly buying into the next "Bull" to inflate the price- to -earnings ratio of the wealthier ones' stock shares - any threats to which they will be alerted to (to enact a pullout) before the next correction, thanks to heads ups from the institutional investors.
Meanwhile, the drones...errrr...dregs....will lose 50% of their 401ks again. They'll therefore have to return to the old grind (work), never having learned to recognize a bubble - but rather being bamboozled by talking heads ....like Jim Cramer. Never mind! The Elites will be further enriched by the hoi polloi's losses! This plus knowing that every initial $160/yr. reduction - via chained CPI- from all 45 million S.S. recipients - will enable them to purchase a new yacht within 2 years!
Ah yes, the life of the typical one percenter. How sweet it is! Those elderly, senile farts? Let 'em eat cat food! Besides, it's loaded with Omega 3's for their creaking hearts!
For those who need to get up to speed on Neoliberalism, what it means, how it came to be, check out:
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/09/the_world_according_to_milton_friedman_partner/
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